40 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VIII., No. 179 



the simplicity and power of which a future age 

 will wonder, and yet wonder jnore that to us they 

 were so dark and difficult ? " 



Let me draw an illustration from another science 

 which will be acknowledged as of transcendent 

 importance even by those, if such sceptics there 

 be, who have no confidence in transcendental 

 mathematics. Cohnheim, the great pathologist of 

 Germany, whose death occui-red in 1884, declares, 

 in the introduction to his ' General pathology,' 

 that the study of the causes of disease is absolutely 

 without hmits, for it touches upon the most het- 

 erogeneous branches of science. Cosmical phys- 

 ics, meteorology and geology, not less than the 

 social sciences, chemistry, as well as botany and 

 zoology, all bring their contributions to that 

 branch of pathology. So, with all his knowledge 

 and ability, this leader in pathology restricted his 

 own work to the study of disordered physiological 

 functions. But what prevention of suffei'ing, 

 what sanitary alleviations, what prolongation of 

 life, may we not anticipate in future generations, 

 when man thoroughly understands his complex 

 environment, and adapts himself to it ? 



In the accumulation of knowledge, as of other 

 forms of wealth, saving must follow earning. So 

 among the offices of a university we find the con- 

 servation of experience. Ignorant as the nine- 

 teenth century appears when we survey the long 

 category of inquiries now held in abeyance by 

 mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, chemists, 

 and biologists, by ethnologists, philologers, his- 

 torians, and publicists, let us ask how much man 

 has advanced since the ages of stone, of iron, and 

 of brass. Such books as Tylor's and Morgan's, 

 such observations as those of Livingstone and 

 Stanley, show us what man is without a history ; 

 what society is where no storage is provided for 

 the lessons learned by successive generations, and 

 where the wisest and best are content to pass 

 away, leaving no sign. It is the business of uni- 

 versities, not only to perpetuate the records of cul- 

 ture, but to bring them out in modern, timely, 

 and intelligible interpretations, so that all may 

 know the laws of human progress, the dangers 

 which imperil society, the conditions of advancing 

 civilization. Experiments upon fundamental 

 laws — such as the establishment of home rule, 

 and the adjustment of the discord between indus- 

 try and capital — may destroy or may promote 

 the happiness of many generations. That mis- 

 takes may not be made, historical politics must be 

 studied, and what is this but the study of the ex- 

 perience of mankind in endeavors to promote the 

 social welfare? As there have been great law- 

 givers in the past, whose codes have been put to 

 secular tests, so momentous experiments have 



run through centuries, and involved the welfare 

 of nations, — experiments which have been re- 

 corded and interpreted, but which call for still 

 closer study, by the wisest intellects, before their 

 lessons are exhausted. Can such researches be 

 made in a moment ? Can they be undertaken by 

 a knight of labor ? Are the facts to be gathered 

 in a circulating library ? Or must we depend upon 

 scholars trained to handle the apparatus of learn- 

 ing? Gladstone and Bryce and Morley may or 

 may not be right in all the subordinate features of 

 the measures which they are advocating ; but their 

 influence at this very moment is resting on the 

 fulcrum of historic knowledge, the value of local 

 self-government. Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, 

 and Marshall were far from being ' inspired ' when 

 they initiated the constitutional measures by 

 which the United States are governed ; and there 

 is abundant evidence to show that they were stu- 

 dents of the past experience of mankind in con- 

 federated politics. The compact of the Mayflower 

 was reduced to writing within the sheltering arm 

 of Cape Cod ; but its ideas are those of men who 

 knew the laws of Moses and Solomon, and who 

 had seen in Holland, as well as in England, what 

 favors and what hinders the development of civil 

 and religious liberty. Within the shadow of the 

 University of Leyden, a stone marks the spot 

 where John Robinson lived, taught, and died ; 

 and the name of Elder Brewster of the Mayflower 

 has been recently discovered among the matric- 

 ulates of Peterhouse. Cambridge. In our day the 

 IDioneers of 1849 carried with them to the re- 

 motest shores of the continent ideas which soon 

 took the form of laws, customs, colleges, schools, 

 churches, hospitals, unknown under the Mexican 

 sway ; but they had learned these ideas in the 

 historic schools of the Atlantic seaboard. 



The universities are the natural conservators of 

 educational experience, and should be recognized 

 as the guides of public education. In a better 

 state of society, means will be found to make the 

 men of learning in a given generation responsible 

 for the systems of primary teaching ; giving po- 

 tency to their coimsel not only at the end but in 

 every stage of scholastic life. Upon text-books, 

 courses of study, methods of discipline, the quali- 

 fications of teachers, the value of rewards, honors, 

 and examinations, the voice of the universities 

 should be heard. The confusion and uncertainty 

 which now prevail are indications that in schools 

 of the lowest as of the highest grades, re-adjust- 

 ments are needed which can only be wisely di- 

 rected by those whose learning embraces the 

 experience of many generations. The wisest are 

 none too wise in pedagogics, but they are tetter 

 counsellors than the ignorant. . 



